Episode 689 - Michael Rapaport
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck, buddies?
Marc:What the fuck, wads?
Marc:What the fuck, Adelix?
Marc:Mark Maron here.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:This is my podcast.
Marc:Welcome.
Marc:Welcome to the show.
Marc:How are you?
Marc:I will be in Iowa City, Iowa at the Mission Creek Festival, the Englert Theater.
Marc:On Friday, April 8th, I will be at the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Marc:On Saturday, April 9th, and I will be at the Harvest Bank Theater at the Midland in Kansas City, Missouri.
Marc:On Sunday, April 10th, those shows will be a mix of some of the new stuff I'm working on and some of the stuff from the more later special.
Marc:If you haven't seen that and you live in those places, maybe wait until I come to watch it.
Marc:If you want to watch it, that special is available on Epics On Demand.
Marc:It's also available now on Hulu and Amazon, my more later special that I'm very proud of.
Marc:And I'm glad that people are watching it.
Marc:And again, I appreciate the feedback on it because we live in a media world where only a few people can get the things that you do or know that they're out there.
Marc:So hearing from you is nice.
Marc:I seemed that my life has gotten very small in the last six months.
Marc:It's all working on the show and doing the podcast.
Marc:I barely watch television.
Marc:I'm barely abreast of the situation.
Marc:I know things are going on.
Marc:I know that there's a charade of a political circus happening.
Marc:You know, many people tried to pressure me to weigh in, to get involved.
Marc:Well, look, here's my belief.
Marc:I don't believe America is, I think it's a troubled country, and it's certainly not fair for everybody, but it's not.
Marc:It is not bad.
Marc:It is not a bad place to live.
Marc:There are certainly problems, but this framing of let's make America great again.
Marc:America's pretty fucking great.
Marc:And I know a lot of people are in trouble and there's a lot of problems.
Marc:There's systemic problems.
Marc:There's injustice.
Marc:There's horrible...
Marc:issues with how things are, are regulated or aren't regulated.
Marc:And you know, who's in charge and what greed does and how people are getting fucked.
Marc:I'm aware of a lot of those, most of those racial problems.
Marc:I'm, I'm highly aware and abreast of those things that are currents of, uh,
Marc:horror in this country and need to be changed i have my own ideas about you know how to change things but but it it doesn't matter it's not it's not the type of show this is you know i deal with i deal with sadness existential anger the frustrations of just being alive trying to be a compassionate person and know yourself in the world and try to uh act from your heart if possible and i believe uh
Marc:In what's left of democracy to some degree, I believe that if everybody out there truly voted their heart, however broken it is and what you do with that heartbreak, that's that's really up to you and your brain and your conscience.
Marc:But I think that if everybody went out there and voted what they really believed in their heart.
Marc:that things could change in the progressive and proper direction for America.
Marc:Because at some point, America is a great country, but when spectacles like what are happening now are happening, it's fucking embarrassing.
Marc:It's embarrassing.
Marc:Sometimes I get embarrassed for our political system and I get embarrassed about certain parts of our country
Marc:culture and population, and there's some part of me that thinks, hey, maybe it's time for this country to grow the fuck up and behave like a responsible nation, responsible to each other.
Marc:People who have beliefs that are unshakable, that's what they're gonna do.
Marc:People who are driven by...
Marc:by a selfish and self-destructive fear out of desperation, they're going to do what they're going to do.
Marc:But I think people with a little sliver of hope and with a certain amount of decency and tolerance, if all of you went out there and voted your heart and what you believed in,
Marc:I think that change can happen and continue to happen.
Marc:That's what I believe.
Marc:Look, it's no great courage or risk for me to say those kind of things in the general way I'm saying it, but I do think that being part of it, whether you think it's bullshit or not, is important.
Marc:Be part of it.
Marc:Go do your civic duty.
Marc:Look, I can't even avoid jury duty.
Marc:I'm certainly not going to avoid voting.
Marc:All right, let's talk about the big events in my life.
Marc:My cat shit in my pants today.
Marc:That's what I woke up to.
Marc:My cat shit in my pants.
Marc:Did I mention Michael Rappaport is on the show today?
Marc:I should mention who's on the show.
Marc:Takes me a long time sometimes.
Marc:I get rambling.
Marc:But Michael Rappaport, who I met briefly like many years ago with the improv.
Marc:He was not pleasant, very cocky.
Marc:He was just coming up.
Marc:And then I ran into him at Sarah Silverman's party like four or five months ago.
Marc:And it was great to see him.
Marc:We talked.
Marc:I've always liked the guy.
Marc:He's a straight shooter.
Marc:He's a real New Yorker.
Marc:I always find him entertaining.
Marc:I think he's a good actor, and I was happy to have him here in the garage.
Marc:So he's coming up.
Marc:But my cat shitting my pants this morning.
Marc:How does that happen?
Marc:No, I wasn't wearing the pants.
Marc:I know it's probably a good setup for a Groucho-style joke.
Marc:That was brought to my attention on Twitter.
Marc:But, yeah, that's what I woke up to.
Marc:I put my pants in, and, like, three or four small pants.
Marc:You know, well, cat sized cat turds fell out of my leg.
Marc:I felt them with the leg going in.
Marc:I knew exactly what was going on.
Marc:I looked over at monkey and I said, are you fucking kidding me?
Marc:Are you fucking kidding me?
Marc:You're going to shit in my pants.
Marc:I've never really received a clearer.
Marc:Sort of message that the litter box needed to be changed.
Marc:Yeah, he shit in my pants.
Marc:So that was exciting.
Marc:What other updates do you need to know?
Marc:The buzz, the buzz in the office, the turntable buzz, the panic that I was experiencing.
Marc:sort of it there's a whistle to it which is really fucking annoying i had the electrician check the uh the currents at the building and they checked out fine whatever that means but the indicator are after troubleshooting that all of these receivers these two receivers and this one app were picking up that frequency on some level leads me to believe that the building's fucking grounded in a not a good way
Marc:And I told the landlord and she's like, no, I haven't had any complaints.
Marc:That's because no one's using stereo equipment.
Marc:And I don't know really what to do with that.
Marc:If the building's fucking grounded wrong.
Marc:Now there's still the idea that would, here's my question to you nerds.
Marc:And a lot of you guys helped out.
Marc:You sent a lot of things.
Marc:A lot of people were, the basic one was like, your turntable needs to be grounded.
Marc:I'm not a moron.
Marc:I know that.
Marc:But the question was, was my cartridge, which is a sensitive cartridge, it's a Sumiko Blue Point 2, which is unshielded, was picking up the antenna frequency from the roof?
Marc:That was some of the assumption that I thought.
Marc:So if there's a person who works in stereo for reels in Los Angeles and you want to email me and maybe come try to figure this out, because I want to be able to listen to the records you guys send me in my office.
Marc:You got a better shot at me listening to it if it works there.
Marc:I don't know if that's incentive.
Marc:My buddy Langhorne Slim, Sean Skolnick, apparently had some part in designing a hat.
Marc:For Stetson.
Marc:Because I got this hat in the mail.
Marc:In a beautiful hat box.
Marc:With a card.
Marc:A little note from Sean.
Marc:Saying look at this man.
Marc:I helped design this hat.
Marc:And it's one of those hats.
Marc:It's not a cowboy hat.
Marc:It's not really a derby.
Marc:But it's sort of that midway point.
Marc:It's got sort of a high top hat.
Marc:rounded with short sides.
Marc:So it's a bit of a derby, but it's a little higher with a little bit of a wider brim.
Marc:It's a unique thing.
Marc:It's a high-end hat, felt, beautiful, black hat.
Marc:And I don't know how you guys feel about hats, but I've bought a lot of hats in my life, a lot of hats of this sort that were not caps.
Marc:They weren't baseball hats.
Marc:I've never been that guy, but fairly dramatic, demanding hats.
Marc:And I've bought them on my own volition.
Marc:I've been in stores, hat stores, places that dealt in high-end hats, and I've put them on.
Marc:I said, yeah, man, I can fucking do this.
Marc:This is a fucking amazing hat.
Marc:But it doesn't ever stick.
Marc:You know, you wear that hat out of that store with a certain amount of confidence, but not as much confidence as you need to carry that hat.
Marc:And you start to feel it kind of chip away.
Marc:You start to realize, like, now this hat is drawing not necessarily positive attention.
Marc:Then you kind of fight with yourself.
Marc:But I like the hat.
Marc:There's no reason I can't express myself with this hat.
Marc:And then you look around like no one else is wearing hats like this.
Marc:And the people that are wearing hats like that, you probably made fun of or you probably think, well, kind of stupid, except for that one or two people like Beck and, you know, maybe a few retro 70s rock sort of dudes can pull off that hat.
Marc:And by the time you get home, you're like, oh, well, this...
Marc:I like this hat.
Marc:Yeah, maybe I'll wear it.
Marc:And then it becomes a house hat.
Marc:So it's a hat you wear around the house.
Marc:And then it just becomes a hat that you have up in a corner.
Marc:And you're like, I still like that hat.
Marc:But I like it on the shelf.
Marc:I like it hanging on the wall.
Marc:So I don't know.
Marc:I don't think I can adjust my entire lifestyle to the hat that Sean sent me.
Marc:But I do like the hat.
Marc:And there's part of me that that wants to wear the hat out there.
Marc:But I just I just I don't want to be one of those guys where, you know, you can't see past the hat.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I think I'm old enough now to realize that maybe I don't need a hat.
Marc:It's sort of a red flag in a way at my age.
Marc:It's a reasonably priced midlife crisis.
Marc:And you're going to look stupid out there.
Marc:So I've got a new house hat.
Marc:And I'm going to go put it on right after this podcast.
Marc:The journey of the hat.
Marc:But it's a nice enough hat that if I hang it on the wall, it'll look good as just a wall hat.
Marc:I've got the house hat that will slowly become a wall hat.
Marc:right now i'm going to talk to michael rapaport it's uh you know there's a lot coming at you you know strap in all right before we go to that conversation with michael i want to mention that he has a podcast called i am rapaport so go check that out if this if this uh if this rhythm
Marc:of what you're about to hear resonates with you, go check out I Am Rappaport, his podcast.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I'll see you on the other side.
Marc:Michael Rapaport.
Marc:I never give anyone an intro.
Marc:I've known about you and I've seen you around forever.
Marc:Did I run into you at that party?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Sarah Silverman's party.
Marc:She got a good party.
Marc:It's a good party.
Marc:I didn't stay the whole run, but it's a nice party.
Guest:It's a good party.
Guest:I see a lot of people there who I only see at that party.
Guest:So I like it.
Guest:That's a good party.
Guest:It's like a low-key celebrity party.
Guest:You know what I liked about the party?
Guest:And I told her I was impressed with the party.
Guest:Nobody was on their phone.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which in this day and age is the sign of a good party.
Marc:And Senator Al Franken showed up.
Marc:Did he?
Marc:I didn't see him.
Marc:Yeah, that was something else.
Marc:I was like, that's Al Franken.
Marc:Because now, you know, I'd known Al for years and I did Air America with him.
Marc:But now it's like, that's Senator Franken.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:Hanging out with the showbiz types.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:And then, you know, and of course it's the Sarah Silverman party.
Guest:Not to say that Senator Franklin had anything to do with it because I didn't even see him there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, you know, everybody was, you know, it's in Los Angeles openly smoking marijuana and eating stuff and all that stuff.
Guest:But it's a good party.
Marc:New York pizza brought in from Joe's.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Good party.
Guest:Do you know, is there a good pizza here?
Guest:I think there's good pizza.
Guest:I think the whole pizza culture in general.
Guest:uh it put some thought into it it's changed it's like you know like now like there's good pizza here it's different i think like pizza in new york is no is no fucking uh nothing to be so proud about couple there's a couple there's got to be a couple there's good places but it's not like where it was like you know church and state where it was like just good pizza in new york and then like mulberry street opened and now there's all sorts of different kinds of pizzas there's fancy pizzas there's vegan pizzas wood oven mozza there's all sorts of shit where do you go in new york do you go
Guest:You could get a good pizza at a local place, like a local slice place.
Guest:So I go to my local slice place, but I go to Patsy's I like.
Guest:But I'm not waiting on a line for a slice of pizza.
Guest:I don't give a fuck if God shat it out of his ass.
Guest:I'm not waiting on a line because there's that whole thing too.
Guest:But I like Joe's downtown.
Marc:Joe's, you mean on six, Carmine?
Marc:On six, that's always good.
Marc:Right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think that's the best one.
Guest:Yeah, I think it's, you know, I don't know if it's the best.
Guest:I'm sure there's other ones, but I'm not like a pizza scavenger.
Marc:Me neither, but there used to be a place on like 48th right off of Broadway there that was really good.
Marc:I can't remember what the fuck the name of it.
Marc:They had that grandma slice.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Which became popular.
Marc:I like that.
Marc:And now Two Boots opened downtown, which I didn't realize.
Guest:Two Boots is good.
Marc:Cornmeal crust.
Marc:I remember when the first one opened on Avenue A, I think, and they put a little one right downtown here.
Marc:I don't know who goes to it, but it was pretty good.
Guest:Two Boots is good.
Guest:But again, I'm not going all out of my way and all that shit for any kind of food.
Marc:Yeah, I won't wait online either.
Guest:I'm not waiting online.
Marc:You go to Austin?
Guest:No, I've only been to Austin once and it was just briefly.
Guest:Why?
Guest:They've never had me out there.
Marc:Yeah, for any reason?
Guest:For any particular reason.
Guest:I've never had any reason.
Marc:For Rappaport to go to Austin.
Marc:Does it live up to all the expectations and hype?
Marc:No, but the reason I brought it up is because there's a barbecue place called Franklin's.
Marc:That's the hipster barbecue place.
Marc:People wait online three fucking hours.
Guest:Fuck that shit.
Marc:How the fuck can I do this?
Marc:I can kill my own cow, barbecue it myself for three fucking hours.
Marc:In the time that would take you.
Marc:All right, so let's go back over, because I'm trying to think when I first knew you were alive.
Marc:I guess it was around, what, the Zebrahead movie?
Guest:Yeah, Zebrahead was when I first made my enormous splash.
Marc:But am I mistaken in that you were a stand-up?
Marc:Because I remember there was some contention over the fact, like, who's this guy, Michael Rappaport?
Marc:Is he a fucking stand-up?
Marc:What's he doing up there?
Marc:I don't know him as a stand-up.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, at the time, there was a little contention.
Guest:My stand-up career was short-lived.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So I came out to Los Angeles in 1989.
Guest:From New York.
Guest:From New York.
Guest:I was 19.
Guest:And I started, you know, I never really was like, you know, like a...
Guest:You know, I never really considered myself like a stand-up.
Guest:Like, I didn't understand the whole idea of making an act.
Guest:I was 19.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I would talk a lot of shit, pretty much the same thing I do now.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But more unstructured shit-talking than I'm actually even doing for you right now.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because right now I have like a beginning, middle, and end to some of my shit-talking.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You've honed it.
Guest:I've honed my shit-talking.
Guest:The life story.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:So as far as my stand-up, yeah, I was doing stand-up.
Guest:But I mean, I would host.
Guest:I had my 20 minutes and all that stuff.
Guest:I didn't know that there was contention.
Guest:But I felt like at that time, stand-up comedy, it was like disco.
Guest:It was the disco era of stand-up comedy.
Guest:And there was a lot of good stand-ups hanging around, especially the improv, which was my stomping rounds.
Guest:But were you affiliated?
Guest:Were you a relative?
Guest:Is Claudia your cousin?
Guest:Claudia is my sister.
Guest:Claudia Lano is my half sister.
Guest:Her actual name is Claudia Rappaport.
Guest:And her stepfather is Mark Lano.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Who owned the improv with Bud Friedman at the time.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:So, I mean, but I did my shit there.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Like I would go up on open mic and all that stuff.
Guest:But I...
Guest:i was i was doing my thing mark like i wasn't a chump right i wasn't like you know chris rock or jay leno but when i got up there motherfuckers laughed yeah it was real i get at the end of the day it's like you get up there and either motherfuckers are gonna laugh or they're not gonna laugh but so wait i don't understand so wait so uh mark lano is not your stepdad mark lano is my half sister's stepfather so she
Guest:We remarried.
Guest:That's why I try to keep the short version.
Guest:Yeah, so Claudia, and I would come visit my sister, and I would actually come visit her before I even thought about becoming a stand-up comic.
Marc:When I was 13- Where are you growing up now?
Guest:Manhattan, New York City.
Marc:You did?
Guest:All New York, everything.
Marc:Really?
Marc:What part of New York?
Guest:East side of Manhattan.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:So you're a real Manhattan kid.
Marc:my whole life how old are you 45 i look 27 right right yeah absolutely so like even when you were a kid like when i was younger so you remember like when new york was like full of drugs and great and you know the disco time and you're running around of course like did you go to cbgb's when you were 13 no no no that wasn't your thing that wasn't my thing that wasn't my thing i mean i started going to hip-hop clubs when i was 15 oh there you
Guest:And it was like, you know, it was probably more like CBGBs than you would think because it was definitely like an underground.
Marc:Yeah, no, I never knew about the hip-hop thing.
Marc:Where'd you go?
Guest:I would go to like Union Square.
Guest:Latin Quarters had a big hip-hop night that was like a big thing.
Guest:Then we started going like to a place in Harlem called The Rooftop.
Guest:These are like sort of quintessential hip-hop spots before like the spots before that.
Marc:And you'd see live shows?
Guest:Live shows.
Marc:Do you remember who you saw?
Guest:Shit, I saw everybody.
Guest:I saw Biz Markie.
Guest:I saw fucking Big Daddy Kane.
Guest:I saw, you know, KRS.
Guest:I mean, I saw like, you know, it was emerging.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:You know, and in the clubs that I went to, there was no alcohol served.
Guest:so all ages i was in there i was 15 with grown men and there was fights and there was girls with fat asses and it was a wild thing to see i was 15 years old and you know people would be getting the shit beaten out of them and music would be playing and people would get carried out girls would get the earrings snatched and you know i love the music and and and we just went one weekend and i was like we just kept going so did you grow up what did you what were your parents are they in show business
Guest:No, my father was the general manager of a radio station, speaking of disco, of a radio station in New York called WKTU Disco 92.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Was the first station in New York to play disco music.
Guest:In the 70s?
Guest:In the late 70s.
Guest:Well, in the 70s, they played mellow.
Guest:And then in like 78, 79...
Guest:He was the one who said we should play disco.
Guest:They went from the bottom of the charts to the top of the charts.
Marc:So your dad was on the cutting edge of all that Danceteria shit, Studio 54, all that.
Guest:They called him Disco Dave.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:You know, and he was just a Jew from the East Side trying to raise a family.
Marc:Is he still around?
Guest:Oh, yeah, he's still around.
Marc:Did he have his time?
Marc:Did he party?
Guest:he i'm he had his time and he partied more than i think he he shares me but you know he was he was he was a single dad you know i mean i was with my father uh most of the time but my mother my mother my father divorced when i was young um so but he was just a guy you know raising his kids but he had his nights at studio 54 yeah you know he was doing his thing and he was running the hottest radio station in new york city at the time so it was a big deal you know and it was disco and it was studio 54 and cocaine and i don't know what the fuck he was
Marc:Yeah, but it's interesting, though, because if he was running the station, you know, the relationships is sort of, you got access.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Sometimes you've got free shit.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:You know, like, I'm sure it's like, we want a car?
Marc:I got a guy, right?
Guest:Cars, sneakers.
Guest:The sneaker thing was cool because the radio station had some deal with a non-chain sneaker place in New York called...
Guest:On the run.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they had a deal with them.
Guest:So I'd go in there and get free sneakers sometimes.
Guest:And as a kid, it was like a, you know, I was like, yo, I could go and get free sneakers and shit.
Marc:It's important.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, so it was, it was cool.
Guest:And, you know, and, and because of, he worked at the radio station, you know how I got exposed to, you know, all sorts of music, but hip hop is like in 1979, he brought home, uh, um,
Guest:a test pressing of the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight.
Guest:It was a promotional copy.
Guest:And he was like, we're going to start playing this on the radio.
Guest:It's called Rap Music.
Guest:And that was it for me.
Guest:I fell in love.
Guest:I was not.
Guest:I fell in love.
Guest:And it was like, you know, at the time, there was no internet.
Guest:Plus, I was nine.
Guest:So when I got the record, it was like you lived in the record.
Guest:You would play it over and over and over and over.
Guest:And it was so unusual.
Marc:You know all the words?
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:I mean, of course.
Guest:Rapper's Light.
Guest:And there was a long version.
Guest:It was a 33-inch.
Guest:So I knew the long version and there was a short version.
Guest:But there was like a 15 or 20-minute version of Rapper's Light.
Guest:And me and my brother, and then finally he bowed out.
Guest:And my father was like, turn that shit off.
Guest:I was like, you brought it home to me.
Guest:But it was like a love affair.
Guest:I fell in love with that music as a kid innocently.
Marc:And it was just you and your brother and your father?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Me and my brother, my father, my sister Claudia, who started this whole fucking thing.
Guest:She lived with her mom and then she was an actress.
Guest:My sister, she was actually a teenage actress.
Guest:She started acting early.
Guest:She got a part.
Guest:She went to music and art in New York City.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And her mother is an actor, right?
Guest:Joanne, too.
Marc:Yeah, she was an actress, right?
Guest:Yeah, and she's still alive.
Guest:But my sister got a part on the TV show Knott's Landing.
Marc:Right.
Guest:She played Diana on Knott's Landing.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And that's kind of like how... You started coming out?
Guest:I started coming out visiting my sister.
Guest:But when I was 13, what I was telling you about the improv, I would come visit.
Guest:I didn't know what anything was.
Guest:But she would say, let's go to the improv.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I saw everybody perform.
Guest:I saw Seinfeld, Leno, Keenan Ivory Williams was the first person I saw on stage.
Guest:I saw Arsenio.
Guest:I saw Eddie Murphy.
Guest:I saw Robin Williams when there would be four people in this.
Guest:I mean, every single person.
Guest:And I was just a kid.
Marc:What year was that?
Guest:This is 83.
Marc:So it was all happening.
Marc:That was like the middle of the boom kind of.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so it was like a unique thing.
Guest:Like Eddie Murphy.
Guest:I mean, everybody would come to the improv.
Guest:It was like the spot.
Guest:It wasn't 15 comedy clubs like they were in Los Angeles.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:It was only two.
Guest:Comedy store and improv.
Guest:And it was like sort of like, you know, church and state.
Guest:It was like you're either a comedy store guy or an improv guy.
Guest:And I was improv.
Guest:I was like, in my head, I was like, fuck the comedy store.
Guest:Like I hang out at the improv.
Guest:I'm 13 years old.
Guest:But you know, like.
Marc:And Claudia's older than you?
Guest:Claudia's older than me.
Guest:For this sake, because she's probably going to listen, we'll say she's younger than me.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:But she used to host there, too, after a while.
Marc:She used to host there, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, she used to do some comedy.
Marc:I remember her.
Marc:I mean, I know her.
Marc:I've hung out with her before.
Guest:Did you fuck my sister, Mark?
Guest:I did not fuck your sister.
Marc:I did not fuck your sister.
Guest:Okay, okay, okay.
Guest:But, you know, it was just an exciting time, and it exposed me.
Guest:At the time, I had dreams of being in the NBA.
Guest:I wanted to be a basketball player.
Marc:You're a tall guy.
Guest:Tall guy.
Marc:Could you play?
Yeah.
Guest:In my head.
Guest:My head was a lot of things going on.
Marc:But you never wanted to rap?
Guest:Never wanted to rap.
Guest:I was just a fan.
Guest:Just a fan.
Guest:Never wanted to rap.
Guest:Never wanted to be an actor.
Guest:Never wanted to be a comedian.
Guest:I was going to be in the NBA.
Guest:At 13.
Guest:But you liked comedy.
Guest:I loved it, but I didn't know what it was.
Marc:You met Bud and everybody?
Marc:I mean... Of course.
Marc:Everybody.
Marc:Because I remember, like, after Zebra Head... That was 89 now.
Marc:Right, but I know.
Marc:But I just remember walking into the improv, and you were, like, holding court.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And also, I had been there.
Guest:I'd been hanging out there... Since you were 13.
Guest:Since I was... Literally, since I was 13.
Guest:But in 89, it was like, you know...
Marc:you fucking not quite but yeah were you you weren't around no i wasn't they never really put me on that much one time i went on uh around probably 92 or something i was there and mark was there yeah i was a very angry guy at that time very angry comic and i did my shit and it was like it was uncomfortable and i walk off and mark standing there by the door going out to the hallway and he looks at me he goes very uplifting
Guest:And that's saying something coming from him.
Guest:He's mocking me.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:But he's all right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All right, so you're 13 and you're going back and forth.
Guest:I'm going back and forth.
Guest:I'm getting kicked out of New York City public schools and private schools.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Why, you a criminal?
Guest:The only thing that I was was disruptive.
Guest:I was so disruptive that I got kicked out of PS 158, which is a public school in the third grade in the 70s.
Guest:So you got to be, I think back now, to get kicked out of a public school in the 1970s in New York City, you got to be such a fucking pain in the ass.
Guest:There was no fire starting.
Guest:There was no violence.
Guest:There was no anything.
Marc:Just old school smart ass.
Guest:Just an old, like on steroids.
Guest:Like I was like a fucking pain in the ass.
Guest:I have no memory of it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I just think back, like how do you get kicked out of the school in the third grade?
Guest:Like that's an accomplishment.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:So you put that on your resume.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Like, you know, and then it was just, I went to one school to the next school and then my father tried me a private school and that was a waste of money.
Marc:He said, where'd you go?
Marc:Where'd you go?
Marc:I went to... Sent you out of state or not?
Guest:No, he sent me in school and went to... I mean, I went to McBurney.
Guest:I went to a school called Robert Louis Stevenson, which was like for like, you know, middle class kids.
Guest:Like it was like basically like a high end place to send your kids that are like on the path to nowhere.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But it was New York and it was the time.
Guest:But, like, I just... The one thing that did keep me focused is that I was going to be in the NBA.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So there was no drinking.
Guest:There was no... I didn't care about girls.
Guest:I didn't care about anything.
Guest:I just played ball, stayed out of trouble, talked a lot of shit.
Guest:I loved...
Marc:I like the idea of a school for kids who are on their way to nowhere.
Guest:They still have them.
Guest:I know.
Guest:They have private schools where they're going to get you out of high school, and the parents have money, and they're going to pay for you to do whatever the fuck you want.
Guest:Liberal learning, different ways of learning.
Marc:Hopefully, you'll work out somehow.
Guest:If you get kicked out of those schools, you're a piece of shit.
Guest:Like, cause they're being paid a lot of money to keep you.
Guest:So like the threshold is high.
Guest:Jail's the next step.
Guest:Jail or like, you know, rehab or like forest programs and stuff like that.
Guest:Like, you know, wilderness shit.
Guest:Here's your gear, hit the mountain.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Cause if you get kicked out of that shit and it's always, you know, more privileged kids than, than, than not.
Guest:So, you know, like, you know, my family, you know, so anyway, I, I got, I wound up getting kicked out of one of those schools and,
Guest:So that was in the eighth grade.
Guest:In the ninth grade, my father sent me back to Wagner Junior High School, public school.
Guest:And then 10th grade, I tried to live with my sister.
Guest:I went to Fairfax.
Marc:Oh, out here?
Guest:For a year, I was in the 10th.
Guest:But I just missed New York and missed my friends too much.
Guest:And then I went to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.
Guest:And, and if you, that school that year was voted in the daily news in the New York city, the worst public school in New York city, which is means a lot.
Guest:Cause I mean, it was like a fucking riot zone.
Guest:Did you get kicked out of there?
Guest:They asked me not to come back.
Guest:They didn't kick me out, but they said, you know- What the fuck were you doing?
Guest:I just was a motherfucker.
Guest:And then at this point, I thought I was hot shit.
Guest:I had a bunch of wild, restless, you know, thug friends.
Guest:I was the only white kid in the entire school.
Guest:And this is a rough school.
Guest:And it wasn't like, well, you must be a tough guy.
Guest:I just had a lot of friends.
Guest:And everybody had their thing.
Guest:Some dudes could fight.
Guest:Some dudes could play ball.
Guest:I could talk shit.
Guest:I could snap.
Guest:I could talk shit.
Guest:So I could play ball.
Guest:I was just, I knew how to use my mouth.
Guest:That was my weapon.
Marc:And you never got arrested?
Guest:I got arrested once in 1989 for some loitering bullshit.
Guest:Nothing to be proud of.
Marc:Loitering?
Guest:Loitering in a mall.
Guest:And then it was like a quick arrest.
Guest:It was like, I got arrested because the reason why they have to- Out here?
Guest:In Virginia.
Guest:It's nothing to be, nothing good.
Guest:And then actually, yeah, but nothing, I got a couple of little small things like that, but nothing like, you know, worth mentioning, like no stories.
Guest:No story behind getting arrested in Virginia?
Guest:19 loitering.
Guest:It was literally loitering.
Guest:And no, I think the only reason why they arrested me because I didn't have ID.
Marc:What were you doing in Virginia?
Guest:visiting my friends that were quote unquote going to college down here you know mingling in small time drug dealing small time doing dumb shit doing dumb shit that Disco Dave's son and June Brody's son shouldn't be doing doing dumb shit doing really stupid shit that when I think about this little period of time I shudder of what could have wind up happening to me
Marc:So did you somehow get scared straight or you just fucking found show business?
Guest:You know what?
Guest:You see my left ear, Mark?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You see my ear?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I got into a fight, like a street fight, and with a bunch of dudes that were really...
Guest:that were really bout it, bout it, and got my ear bit off.
Guest:And if you see the shape of my ear, and at this point, I knew I wasn't going to the NBA.
Guest:No college scholarships had come in like I had dreamed in practice for hours and hours.
Marc:From the guy who got kicked out of school every year, there was no college scholarships.
Guest:No, for the six foot two Jewish kid from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, strangely- Smart ass, big mouth motherfucker.
Guest:Who averaged 11 points.
Guest:That was his height.
Guest:No colleges came knocking down my door.
Guest:I don't know why to this day.
Guest:I feel like a lot of the biggie schools missed out.
Guest:But-
Guest:That incident, I called my father.
Guest:I was like, Dad, I've been in the hospital for the last day.
Guest:And I got my, you know, I told him he was like, you know, listen to me.
Guest:And he said to me, this is a true story.
Guest:He said to me, I'm afraid the next time you call me, somebody's going to tell me you got a bullet in you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I remember, I don't have a great memory, but I distinctly remember a shiver going through me.
Guest:And I was like, in my head, that could happen.
Guest:And then I actually came back to Los Angeles and got an apartment for $325.
Guest:So how old were you when the fight happened?
Guest:19.
Guest:19.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then I came to Los Angeles.
Marc:And you were just hanging out with some bad guys and the shit went down?
Guest:Like, I mean, like real rough dudes.
Marc:Like real rough dudes.
Marc:But were those the dudes you were hanging with regular at that time?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I was hanging with rough guys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was taken care of and protected.
Guest:But like I was hanging, you know, like my friends were like all from...
Guest:the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, which is the un-gentrifiable section of Brooklyn, and Harlem, and they were street dudes.
Guest:And I fancied myself a street dude, but I was fucking, I was not, but I was around them.
Guest:And it literally started over some like, what are you looking at shit?
Guest:And the next thing you know, we're like in a four-on-three street fight, and people are throwing rocks and throwing punches, and I was actually getting the better of this dude, and he bit my ear.
Guest:And at this point, I had a looming thought that I would be a stand-up comic,
Guest:And while he was biting my ear, I said to him, you're biting my fucking ear, I swear to God.
Guest:And as I pulled away from him, I touched my ear and I couldn't feel it because it went numb.
Guest:But no bullshit, the first thing that popped in my head was, you can't be a stand-up comic with one ear.
Guest:Like, that's no bullshit.
Guest:Like, I was like, how am I going to be a stand-up comic?
Marc:I thought you were going to say, like, I'm going to get 10 minutes of material out of it.
Guest:No, no, no, no, no.
Guest:Like, I had never even tried it at this point.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I'm going to be the one ear guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I should have went with that.
Guest:See, that's why I wasn't a good stand-up.
Guest:You got most of your ear.
Guest:Did they have to put it back on?
Guest:Well, I got a skin graft.
Guest:Oh, all right.
Guest:So, you know, anyway, that kind of woke me up.
Marc:Yeah, that thing your dad said.
Marc:Like, if you know it and you feel it and, you know, he says something like that and you realize you look at your life and where it is and it lands, that's terrifying.
Guest:And it was great.
Guest:Luckily, it didn't go any further because I had no business doing the shit that I was doing.
Guest:And I was, you know, and I just was, you know, I was young, man.
Guest:I was so fucking dumb.
Guest:Like when you're 19, it's the dumbest part of my life.
Guest:Yet the time that I thought I was the smartest in my life.
Guest:Like now I know how dumb I am.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I know like what my parameters are.
Guest:But at the time, I thought I knew everything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was untouchable.
Guest:And I was dumb as shit.
Guest:And it wasn't tough.
Guest:And I wasn't, I was just dumb.
Marc:dumb isn't it weird though you have kids now two sons you have two sons 15 and 13 really yeah already when did that happen when i was 30 do the math mark i know i'm with you i know it's crazy though right yeah because like i don't know i don't you're one of those guys i think i know but i don't know no i'm just playing but uh but like you know when i look back on it or i even see young people doing comedy now and they're like they're saying all this shit and there's part of me it's like that's not gonna
Marc:That's not going to happen.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What are you thinking?
Marc:Right.
Marc:But when you're in it, even if an old guy says to you, like, what the fuck are you doing?
Marc:You're stupid.
Marc:You're like, right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:What do you know?
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:And now you're an old guy and you're like, I know.
Guest:And now I have teenage sons.
Marc:How are they doing?
Guest:They're doing good.
Guest:You know, like they're ahead of me.
Guest:You know, they're doing well.
Marc:In what way?
Guest:Just in terms of where they are in their lives.
Guest:You know, I mean.
Marc:Good students and whatnot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They're good students.
Guest:They're getting there.
Guest:I mean, they have the Rappaport name and they're boys.
Guest:So, you know, there's sort of a genetic disposition to be a fuck up.
Guest:But in general, they're good kids and they haven't gotten kicked out of school yet.
Guest:So let's just put their sweet kids and, you know, and they're good.
Guest:They're good boys.
Marc:So you move out here, you get an apartment for 300 bucks.
Guest:325 bucks yeah the 25 changes the game so if you say 300 it was 325 it's 1989 so it's okay 325 you know it wasn't 375 i don't think i could have afforded where is that it was actually it was it was one of these apartments that sort of talked about by comics it was like this it was on carlton way in hollywood and a lot of other comics lived there like j anthony brown yeah jimmy woodard um i remember jimmy
Guest:What happened to that guy?
Guest:Jimmy's, I think, still around doing his thing.
Guest:But it was like the comic place.
Guest:I started doing my little stand-up, and I was able to pay the rent.
Marc:And you're 20?
Guest:I'm 19.
Marc:Yeah, so you're doing mostly at the improv.
Guest:Well, at that point, actually, I didn't start doing stand-up.
Guest:I didn't make any money for about a year.
Guest:I mean, we're talking like $25, $50.
Marc:Were you working another job?
Guest:Yeah, I was a messenger.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A driving messenger.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which was actually fun because it helped me learn the city because I didn't know how to drive.
Marc:I had your Thomas Guide.
Guest:Thomas Guide.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would deliver scripts to like actors and agencies.
Guest:It was a fucking messenger.
Guest:You'd have like, you know, packages.
Guest:Did you meet some guys?
Guest:I remember that I delivered a script to the guy from Dukes of Hazzard and he came out and I was like, oh shit, that's a dude from Dukes of Hazzard.
Guest:But like I was like, you know, he came out and got like the package.
Guest:I think it was a script, but that was like a big deal.
Guest:Like, yo, that's the dude from Dukes.
Guest:Not that I gave a fuck about Dukes of Hazzard, but I went to his and I was like in my head, I was like, yo, I know where the guy from Dukes of Hazzard live.
Guest:the blonde had to do Schneider I think his name is John Schneider maybe I don't know did some singing too I think that guy yeah yeah yeah and so but you know I would see people but I wasn't impressed you know like I wasn't you know whatever the job was good but I kept that messenger job
Guest:for about a year, a year and a half.
Marc:And you had family out here and you got along with Mark.
Marc:You could eat at the Improv if you wanted.
Guest:I could eat at the Improv.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And the cost of living was just so cheap.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my apartment is 325.
Guest:It's a fucking shithole.
Guest:And my mother gave me a used car.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, I was off and running.
Guest:And at this point, I was going to be the next Eddie Murphy.
Guest:In my head, I was going to be Eddie Murphy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's like what I was going to be.
Guest:But I had no...
Guest:sort of plan or how to get there, and I was not a great stand-up comedian, nor did I understand what it takes to become a great stand-up comedian.
Guest:And then after about a year, year and a half of doing stand-up, I would go on late or real early.
Guest:Like, I was never prime time.
Marc:Yeah, of course.
Guest:You know, a casting agent saw me doing stand-up, and they were casting the movie Zebrahead, and they were like, yo, you want to come in and audition for this movie?
Guest:And at the time, like, that's like... Like, I was like...
Guest:Zebra Head was like... It was the perfect storm.
Guest:It was the perfect part at the perfect time.
Guest:And when I read the script, I was like, I'm going to get this part.
Guest:I knew in my head.
Guest:It was sort of like your life.
Guest:It was like my life.
Guest:It was a softer version of my life.
Guest:But I related to the whole culture, the music, the sort of outsider aspect of it all, and the interracial.
Guest:And at the time, I was like... I flew myself to New York.
Guest:I auditioned.
Guest:And it was a small movie.
Guest:It was in like a...
Guest:And I auditioned and I auditioned and I was like, in my head, I was like, there's no way I'm not getting this part.
Marc:Yeah, and you did, right?
Guest:And I got the part.
Marc:And more than the movie, you got sort of noticed.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And then I was an actor.
Guest:And then I was like, I'm not doing stand-up anymore.
Guest:I'm an actor.
Guest:I quit.
Guest:Because, you know, and I remember, like, Adam Sandler and, you know, Ben Stiller and Sarah Silverman and Dave Schwalz.
Guest:I don't do this shit no more.
Guest:Fuck stand-up comedy.
Guest:I quit.
Guest:I'm an actor.
Guest:And, you know, I made, like, $27,000 before taxes.
Guest:But, like, yo, you're 20, 21 years old.
Guest:That's big.
Guest:That's fucking huge.
Guest:And you think you're on your way.
Guest:I think I'm on my way.
Guest:And you were, kind of.
Guest:And I bought a Honda Accord.
Guest:And I was like, yo, this is it.
Guest:You know, like...
Guest:And, you know, fortunately, I started working.
Marc:I know you're still frugal.
Marc:Like, yeah, I bought an accord.
Marc:I'm a practical guy.
Guest:No, I was always good with money.
Guest:I was always good with money until I got divorced.
Guest:But that's a whole other fucking subject.
Marc:I know that one.
Guest:You know that one, right?
Marc:Yeah, I do.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What, from the mother of your kids?
Guest:I got divorced once, and that's all I'm saying.
Guest:I'm not saying anything.
Guest:I'm not saying anything.
Marc:It's over, though.
Guest:The kids are still alive, and there's still bills to be paid.
Marc:Yeah, I get you.
Marc:Were you divorced?
Marc:I was, but I got no kids.
Marc:I was divorced twice.
Marc:Oh, shit.
Marc:The second one hurt because I had some money.
Marc:Fuck.
Marc:It hurts when you got money.
Marc:But I imagine if you have kids, it's a whole other ballpark.
Guest:Well, you know what?
Guest:I don't understand because you seem like you're a smart dude.
Guest:And also, I need to ask you, was the president sitting right where I'm sitting?
Marc:Yeah, right there.
Guest:Wait a minute.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Right where I'm sitting.
Guest:He was sitting in here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When he walked in, was he like, this is a fucking hovel?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, has he been in a place like this since he's been president?
Marc:What he said exactly was a lot of pictures of you around here, sort of narcissistic, isn't it, Mark?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So he took a shot at me right out of the gate.
Guest:And were you like, oh shit, this isn't going well?
Marc:No, no, no.
Marc:He was making a joke.
Marc:It was very relaxed.
Marc:He listened to it.
Guest:No, I've heard it.
Marc:Were you tripping out?
Marc:Yeah, dude.
Marc:I mean, I had fucking Secret Service all over the place.
Marc:There was LAPD here.
Marc:They tented my driveway.
Marc:We're waiting.
Marc:We see his helicopters coming over.
Marc:I mean, he's a fucking president.
Marc:It's not a casual event.
Marc:Got five people on headsets out there.
Marc:It was nuts.
Marc:Gets out of the motorcade, comes up through that gate right at the end of this place.
Marc:gate that i walked through right and i'm standing in front they told me to wait here for him he walks in with all these people coming up the driveway the staff and everything i didn't even see him and all of a sudden out of out of the crowd i see mark and there's obama waving at me and i'm like mr president did chills go through yes
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:Chills went through me knowing that I was sitting in the same spot.
Guest:This is his cup.
Marc:I put a little glass dome on his cup.
Guest:That's fucking cool.
Marc:He left his to-go cup.
Guest:That's fucking cool.
Guest:That was insane, dude.
Guest:Like, did you sage the place?
Guest:Because I'm not saying in any disrespectful way, Mark, but it's got a lived-in smell.
Guest:And not bad, not good.
Guest:A little musky.
Guest:It's got a lived-in smell, but I mean, this is where it all happens.
Marc:Yeah, they swept it.
Marc:They swept it in here?
Marc:Yeah, they took things that look dangerous off the desk here, like that hammer and the knife.
Guest:Did you ever, in all of your podcasting, ever imagine that as good and as revered as you are, and so much of a staple and sort of like a monumental pillar of podcasting, did you ever even think...
Guest:Even that that would even be remotely something that could happen?
Guest:No.
Guest:Interviewing the president of the United States?
Guest:No.
Marc:It was crazy.
Marc:I mean, I had done political talk radio years ago.
Marc:But even then, to get a president just never happened.
Marc:And I never set out to get him.
Marc:I don't even do politics anymore.
Marc:And I'm like, what the hell?
Marc:I had no idea.
Marc:And then people were like, well, how are you going to follow that?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I got Rich Voss on.
Marc:Michael Rappaport's coming on.
Marc:But what else are you going to do?
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I don't want to interview candidates.
Marc:It was an amazing event.
Marc:I was thrilled that he thought this would be a good outlet for him to talk to people about himself, which he did.
Marc:And from everything I've heard, there was not much backlash negative from either side.
Guest:Why should there be?
Marc:It was a great interview.
Marc:Well, because there's a bunch of assholes on both sides.
Marc:Right.
Marc:They don't shut up.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And there's always a fucking problem.
Marc:But a lot of people are like, I forgot how much I liked that guy.
Marc:Right.
Marc:They're like, yeah, now I know why you're voting for him.
Marc:Why can't he stay there?
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then there were people that never liked him, but that was great.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, so it worked out.
Guest:Did you find yourself, when you were looking at him, was it surreal?
Guest:And were you ever thrown?
Guest:Were you going through?
Guest:Did you ever sort of like...
Guest:feel totally relaxed or were you always sort of like on cloud nine of it?
Guest:Like, you know, like probably right now that you're interviewing me, there's probably a nervous excitement, right?
Guest:Of course.
Marc:Yeah, just like when Obama was here.
Guest:That's what I'm saying.
Guest:So did it ever go away?
Guest:Like you feel like, I feel like you've relaxed into the regular Mark Maron, but with Obama, did it ever go away?
Marc:Well, I was I was pretty open and pretty, you know, kind of vulnerable and nervous.
Marc:But I also knew that I wanted to do what I do.
Marc:So, you know, I wore my plaid shirt.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And but I prepared more than I would otherwise because I had a tight hour.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And there was some things we had to cover and there was other things I wanted to get to.
Marc:I wanted to frame it so he didn't get lost in politics or it didn't get too wonky.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know, we stay.
Marc:I wanted him to connect with me.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So that happened pretty quickly.
Marc:Like, he disarmed me pretty quickly, made some jokes, and very quickly, he's sitting there, and I'm like, I see a guy there.
Marc:There's a guy there.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And he was connected.
Guest:That's what I felt like I heard.
Guest:Like, I felt like I heard the guy.
Marc:Yeah, and that happened.
Marc:So once that started happening, I mean, if you listen to it, like 10 minutes in, I'm calling a man, and I'm finishing his sentences.
Marc:So there was a comfort there, and he's very adaptable in that way, but I really felt like he was present, and it was a guy.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Pretty quickly, I stopped thinking about everything that was going on outside.
Guest:You were able to zero in.
Marc:Right, because I had questions, and I don't usually.
Marc:And I couldn't just fly by the seat of my pants on that one, or else I risk having an incomplete interview.
Marc:And I think I covered everything I wanted to cover.
Guest:No, it was good.
Guest:It was good.
Guest:So now that you did, Obama did, interviewed Obama, who is the top three people, aside from this, you could check me off, who's the top three people that you would want to get to now?
Marc:Well, there's a lot of people even in show business.
Guest:If you could pick three, like if you were like, these would be the three of your favorites.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Albert Brooks would be great.
Marc:Oh, that would be cool.
Marc:Right?
Marc:You know, there's part, I really, I want to talk to Lily Tomlin about the old days.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:You know, I think it'd be pretty exciting to talk to like, you know, Coppola.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Of course.
Marc:I don't know, man.
Marc:There's always people that that like I talked to Bill Friedkin the other day.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And like in my mind, like sometimes because I've run through my Rolodex.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So now we get pitched people.
Marc:And like someone like Friedkin, of course, I want to fucking talk to Friedkin.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Directed the French Connection.
Marc:Right.
Marc:He was here for three fucking hours.
Guest:That's crazy.
Marc:So like I if I'm interested, it doesn't matter where they come from.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Politicians, I'm not so interested in.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I hear you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Of course Trump would be fun, right?
Marc:I guess, but he would just steamroll me.
Marc:What are you going to do with that guy?
Marc:I mean, like, he's going to blow through me.
Marc:Like, people say that.
Guest:Does he blow through or is he just, he's talking bullshit, right?
Guest:Well, yeah, he is a shit talker.
Guest:I listen to him and I'm like, I feel like I could be the president.
Guest:Right.
Guest:If this motherfucker's taking it that far, like, he doesn't know shit.
Guest:I don't know shit.
Guest:He just talks some fucking random greasy shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he's just, like, I'm like, yo, I could do this.
Guest:Like, that's the thing that I think is almost good about him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Running.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This motherfucker makes it feel like anybody could be president.
Guest:This motherfucker doesn't know anything more or less than I do.
Guest:I've never heard somebody double talk so well.
Guest:He just doesn't answer the questions.
Guest:He works the room.
Guest:He works the room and he makes bullshitting attainable.
Guest:But I don't know if that's good or bad in politics, but I'm like, I'm going to run for something.
Guest:I seriously feel like I could be the mayor of New York.
Guest:If this fucking guy could run for president, I could at least be the mayor of New York.
Marc:Schwarzenegger was the fucking governor of California.
Marc:Reagan was the fucking president.
Marc:I mean, you know, actors have done, you know what I mean?
Marc:It's possible.
Marc:It's possible.
Marc:But yeah, no, but I don't know what I do with him because like there's like here's the problem.
Marc:And even with Obama, but not not so much when I talk to him is that they have an agenda.
Marc:And if they have an agenda, everybody sort of has an agenda.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So like, you know, that agenda, like you said, the ability to deflect questions and deflect conversation to sort of service what you want to talk about anyways is annoying.
Marc:Mm hmm.
Marc:So, you know, like I knew, like with Obama, they didn't tell me, they didn't give us questions.
Marc:They gave us final edit.
Marc:They knew he's a pro.
Guest:So like anything that guy- You're not going to trip up Obama.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:So anything they don't want to answer, they're just going to be like, well, that's a good question.
Marc:I'm going to talk about something else now.
Guest:They're going to take you down a fucking lake.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:You're going to be down a lake.
Guest:And by the time you realize you're at that lake, you're going to be like too far to hike up.
Guest:You're going to be on a pond somewhere.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, so I don't really want to deal with the campaign.
Marc:What were you saying, though?
Marc:We were talking about divorce.
Marc:You said, I'm a smart guy.
Marc:I've been married twice.
Guest:Oh, I don't know.
Guest:We were talking about divorce, child support.
Guest:Yeah, but yeah, I told you.
Guest:The reason I was going to ask you, Coach, so you don't have kids, because child support.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm not going to...
Guest:say or not say whether I deal with this, but just in general.
Guest:And you would think, what does a random person bringing up child support, he's probably dealing with, but I'm not gonna say either way.
Guest:But child support, I just wanna throw this out there, but you don't know this, but I figured you were probably smarter than me, is a motherfucker.
Guest:Because with child support, you get forced to pay a certain amount of money each month.
Guest:And there's no proof of receipt on where that fucking money is going.
Guest:And I thought, because I like your point of views on things, if you had experienced that, you could really break that down.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because it's a motherfucker.
Guest:And as far as like, I don't know if it's state by state or a national thing, but I feel like the Second Amendment and the child support laws don't change.
Guest:Those are the only fucking two things that change.
Guest:Like iPods improve, cars improve, but those motherfucking things, child support...
Marc:But I think your issue is- And this has nothing to do with me.
Guest:It's a cousin, a friend of mine.
Marc:Okay, all right.
Marc:So your friend, I think the issue he's dealing with is the basic sort of like, what's she doing with the fucking money?
Guest:Why is there no proof of purchase?
Guest:Where's that fucking money going?
Guest:Again, this has nothing to do with me.
Guest:I understand.
Guest:I just heard a guy talking in a coffee shop down the street.
Guest:I know.
Marc:I'm with you on that, and I feel bad for that guy.
Marc:Yeah, me too.
Marc:I don't even know his name.
Marc:But the truth of the matter is, I guess you could ask the kid, where's the new shoes that your mother said that she got?
Guest:Your pants look too small, and you look thin.
Guest:You don't seem like you're eating good.
Guest:I don't understand.
Guest:I sent her money.
Guest:Where's the fucking money going?
Guest:I understand.
Guest:And why don't you have a seven-foot Christmas tree?
Guest:You got that bullshit Christmas tree.
Guest:And why is she driving a new car?
Guest:I mean, not my kid.
Guest:Not me, the other kid.
Guest:The guy at the coffee shop.
Guest:Right.
Marc:No, I know.
Marc:Like, I guess I dodged that bullet.
Marc:But all of that shit, as soon as lawyers are involved, you know, it's a no-win game for anybody.
Guest:It's fucked up.
Guest:And those no-good fucking judges, they truly do judge you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They judge you.
Guest:It's their job.
Guest:Yeah, I know.
Guest:But, you know, until you're actually judged by a real judge, you've never been judged.
Guest:So, like, you know, you can be like, well, that girl judged me.
Guest:My boss judged me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, until you're in there with that no good judge and he's really fucking he's seen it all.
Guest:Yeah, all of it.
Guest:Like there's not like all your fucking like rhetoric.
Marc:All your bullshit.
Marc:It means nothing to this guy.
Marc:You can't shit talk a judge.
Marc:A judge?
Marc:Because they're like, all right, that's fine.
Marc:But let's talk about the issue at hand.
Guest:And he's going to do it in three to five seconds and you're not going to know what the fuck happened to you.
Guest:Until you're at the fucking bank pulling out money and you might as well just be in Vegas just gambling it away because it's going nowhere.
Marc:Yeah, to the lawyer.
Marc:There's more paperwork.
Marc:Those fucking no good lawyers too.
Marc:Yeah, I know.
Marc:You know what got me is the disclosure process.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That killed me.
Marc:Like I was like, you know, I, you know, I don't have kids, but I'm like, I'm right.
Marc:I, you know, I, I have a just fucking fight here.
Marc:And then they have you do, we need all your phone bills for 20 years, whatever the fuck it is.
Marc:I've never been more organized in my life.
Marc:I was at Kinko's three hours a day, putting shit together for her dumb lawyer, not realizing that all they're, it's a fucking shakedown.
Guest:It's a fucking shakedown.
Guest:And then you're at Kinko's for three hours, yet your court session's like 36 seconds.
Guest:You don't even go.
Marc:You get a piece of paper that says that it was filed for $2,000.
Guest:It's motherfuck- The lawyer bills?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's a fucking- See, that's what I don't understand.
Guest:Those motherfucking lawyers- Yeah.
Guest:Those divorce, that's a show.
Guest:On both sides.
Guest:They're fucking scumbags.
Guest:The more you argue, the happier they are.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:They just want to keep going.
Guest:Yeah, and your lawyer is acting like your therapist, but he's really just going ka-ching, ka-ching.
Marc:Oh, sure, sure.
Marc:I guess we can try that.
Marc:That sounds like a good idea.
Guest:Yeah, no, fuck her.
Guest:I don't like her.
Guest:And then, well, what do you think of her lawyer?
Guest:And he's, oh, we're going to game plan.
Guest:It's like he thinks he's fucking Bill Belichick and it's the super.
Marc:No, it's just a fucking racket.
Marc:Then after that, they go home and they call the other lawyer like, how you doing?
Marc:I'm good.
Guest:They're probably fucking each other, the two lawyers.
Marc:Somehow.
Marc:Somehow.
Marc:But that's the operative word for me with all that stuff, is that it really does become a shakedown.
Marc:And the only way it ends is when the guy with the money goes, all right, I'm done.
Marc:I'm done.
Marc:I've had enough.
Marc:I submit.
Guest:You put me in the figure four...
Marc:I got it.
Marc:You win.
Marc:I can't take it anymore.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And then all that money you spent being righteous.
Marc:It's like, why the fuck?
Marc:Because any motherfucker, I'll tell you this right now.
Marc:Any guy who's been through it before will tell you right to your face, pay her.
Guest:Just give her what the fuck she wants.
Guest:Off the top.
Guest:Just pay her.
Guest:Because when those, what are they?
Guest:What is it?
Guest:LESQs.
Guest:What's the thing for a lawyer?
Guest:Esquires.
Guest:When they get involved, that's when the fucking party's over.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you think, and then you think you're like in some sort of fight, but it ain't the thriller in Manila.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:It ain't Pacquiao versus Mayweather.
Guest:It ain't Rousey versus the other girl.
Guest:It's a fucking slaughter.
Marc:It's fixed and the guy with the money is going to lose.
Guest:Yeah, Don King's coming in for the fucking fix.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So anyway- But you're all right, then.
Guest:I'm all right.
Guest:I can't complain.
Marc:The kids are all right.
Marc:The kids are good.
Marc:Good.
Marc:So, all right.
Marc:So now, going back to your story.
Marc:So, Zebrahead, so you're launched.
Marc:I'm launched.
Marc:You got an agent, big agency.
Guest:I got an agent.
Guest:I got a manager.
Marc:You're going out.
Marc:Well, I don't think people realize.
Marc:I don't think I realized until I looked at the filmography.
Marc:I mean, you've been in like a fucking hundred movies.
Marc:Yeah, I mean- One way or the other.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Good, bad, and indifferent.
Guest:But yeah, I've worked nonstop since-
Guest:1991, man, and I've had the fortune of doing a lot of great movies with a lot of great people and work with a lot of great directors, and I've learned a tremendous amount.
Marc:Your fifth movie you did was True Romance.
Marc:That was big.
Marc:Everyone loves that movie.
Marc:I watched it recently.
Marc:I got it on Blu-ray.
Marc:You're great in that movie.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:It's a good movie.
Guest:It's a sweet part.
Guest:It's a sweet part.
Guest:That's really who I was at the time.
Guest:I was an actor who wanted a break, and that's why I got the part, because they were casting that film, and it was actually... That was, at the time...
Guest:When scripts were scripts, they weren't sent.
Guest:They weren't emailed.
Guest:So you'd get them.
Guest:And the word around town was big about the true romance script for the actors.
Guest:And Quentin Tarantino had just done Reservoir Dogs.
Guest:And then around this time, Natural Born Killers had come out.
Guest:Yeah, so he's hot.
Guest:Yeah, he's hot and it's exciting.
Guest:And so this true romance script that he's directing is being passed around.
Guest:And like, you know, all my actor friends were auditioning for one part or another.
Guest:And and, you know, we started hearing, oh, well, Christopher Walken's going to play the mobster.
Guest:Oh, shit, the mobster.
Guest:And they're like, well, Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, who had just come off a really good part in the Indian Runner.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They're going to.
Guest:Oh, that's cool.
Guest:And then Dennis Hopper is going to play.
Guest:Oh, shit.
Guest:Dennis.
Guest:Oh, so Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken are going to be doing that scene.
Guest:Yeah, that fucking eight page scene.
Guest:And so it was just this anticipation.
Guest:And I had auditioned for a mobster part.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Gandolfini's part.
Guest:No, just small, small part.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A small part.
Guest:I'll actually say which part it was because I never like to sort of discredit.
Guest:But it was a part that my friend, an actor friend, Kevin Corrigan.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So that he wound up playing.
Guest:So I had auditioned for that part and I was in the loop for that.
Guest:And I was like, you know, like.
Guest:I interviewed him.
Guest:He's a good dude.
Marc:Yeah, great guy.
Guest:And me and Kevin have worked with each other a lot.
Guest:Like he was in my first movie, Zebrahead.
Guest:And Kevin had already done.
Guest:He'd done Goodfellas.
Guest:He had done Men Don't Leave.
Guest:And I was like, yo, that's Kevin.
Guest:You know, like I knew who he was.
Guest:And he just like working on a film with Kevin.
Guest:was kind of like the first time when zebra head was the first actor i saw act the way i wanted to act yeah like he exploded he had a small part in zebra but he exploded at me you know when when cameras were rolling and i was like yo this guy's like al pacino yeah and i was like i want to do that and then we had pizza and like you know we became friends and the rest is you know friendship history but um the casting director who was um
Guest:Mary Vernu, she was the casting assistant, while they were trying to cast Dick Ritchie, she told my agent, yo, that guy, Michael Rappaport guy, should come in and read.
Guest:He's like that.
Guest:So I went in and read on a Saturday with the great Tony Scott, and I remember behind me,
Guest:was all the photos of who the people were going to be in the movie yeah so it was you know like i'm looking up there and they were like xerox copies of christian slater patricia arquette val kilmer yeah samuel jackson uh james gandolfini who was nobody at the time yeah um and and and so on and so on and i'm like and i told tony scott who passed away i said please don't let me leave here until i get this part yeah
Guest:And he said, all right, mate, we'll try.
Guest:And I just read and read and read.
Guest:But I think just that earnestness really made sense.
Marc:Well, you probably had to peel back.
Marc:It's a pretty vulnerable part.
Marc:Yeah, it's who I was.
Marc:Sweet kid almost.
Marc:Sweet kid who just wanted his big break.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You're so naturally filled with bluster.
Marc:I imagine Tony was like, all right, turn it down.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Turn it down.
Guest:Well, at the time, you know...
Guest:I don't know what the fuck was going through my head, but I knew somehow this was for me.
Guest:And there's been certain moments in my career, like Zebrahead was the first one, and True Romance was the second one.
Guest:I was like, this is for me.
Guest:This is my part.
Guest:And I got it.
Guest:And doing that film was like...
Guest:I would show up on set when I wasn't in the movie because I was on set when they did the Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper scene and James Gandolfini.
Guest:He was just a guy like me.
Guest:We were like, I can't fucking believe this.
Guest:And Gary Oldman was like, I remember being in the makeup trailer and Gary Oldman was over there doing like a hair test.
Guest:And I was like, what the fuck?
Guest:They were actually considering me for that part at one point.
Marc:Wow, that's a big part.
Guest:That's a heavy part, right?
Guest:It was just a privilege to be in it.
Guest:And Tony Scott was so welcoming with all my thoughts and ideas.
Guest:And I was going to be Marlon Brando and I have these ideas and I'm going to create.
Guest:And some of the things he would say, no, no, no.
Guest:And some of the things he would say, yeah, yeah, yeah, try it.
Guest:But he never told me to shut the fuck up.
Marc:Right, but before that, Poetic Justice, that was a pretty big movie, right?
Marc:Was that Janet Jackson?
Guest:Tupac.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I just had a little part in it, but I wanted to be in it because I loved Tupac, and I knew how special he was, like a lot of other people.
Guest:You knew you were around somebody who was special.
Guest:Just to go to the cast reading and the rap party, fucking Janet Jackson was there, and this is when Janet Jackson was like Janet Jackson, and Tupac was there, and
Guest:Regina King, who... These are your heroes.
Guest:I'm like, yo, and John Singleton, who had just done Boys in the Little.
Guest:I'm like, yo, this is... You know, I'm 25 years old, so I went... I remember just like... I don't care how big the part is.
Guest:It was with Tupac.
Guest:I went to the fucking cast read-through, and I went to the rap party.
Guest:And I remember the rap party.
Guest:Like, Janet Jackson was like, oh, I saw True Romance.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:And I was like, this is fucking crazy here.
Guest:This is crazy.
Guest:And Tupac, and I got a Polaroid with Tupac.
Guest:You still got it?
Guest:I still got it.
Guest:that's sweet man yeah so singleton is great i think that that movie baby boy yeah fucking masterpiece me too i love that fucking movie good too yeah he's discovered so many so many great actors yeah i just i love his work i'd like to talk he's another guy see we bring it up i'd like to talk to that guy connect you with him and he's a good dude easy good dude like low-key loves movies loves talking loves actors loves film oh wow like a like i like a good the same dude he's always been
Guest:Like a good dude.
Guest:Really smart.
Guest:He's like a fucking encyclopedia.
Guest:He's like one of these encyclopedias.
Guest:Film nerd?
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:He's a nerd nerd.
Guest:I'll tell him this to his face.
Guest:I love John.
Guest:He's a nerd nerd who's also a film nerd.
Marc:I'd love to fucking talk to that guy.
Guest:He's good people.
Marc:All right, so you do that.
Marc:So you do true romance.
Marc:And there's a lot of movies here that I haven't seen.
Guest:Some of them aren't that good, Mark.
Guest:Some of them aren't worth seeing.
Guest:Some of them might be good, but listen, you don't never know.
Guest:But you'll take the gig.
Guest:I'll take the fucking gig, and you go into it thinking everything's going to be gone with the wind.
Guest:They ain't gone with the wind.
Guest:Kiss Toledo goodbye up there.
Guest:That's one of the things you've never seen.
Guest:Don't fucking see it.
Guest:It's a piece of shit.
Guest:Great cast, but it was with Christine Taylor, Christopher Walken, a lot of piece of shit.
Guest:You never know.
Marc:But you're one of those guys that's going to represent himself no matter what.
Marc:There's a baseline to your personality that's not going to go away.
Marc:You're not going to disappear.
Marc:So anything you're in, you're like, that's Michael Rappaport doing some variation of that guy.
Guest:Listen, when you're just an actor... Character actor, right?
Guest:Yeah, but when you're just an actor, you're solely responsible...
Guest:And you could drive yourself crazy, and this is where I think actors get a bad rap, because especially the more and more successful you get and the more pressure.
Guest:But when you're just an actor, the only thing you can control is your performance.
Guest:And even that, at the end of the day, a director and editor...
Guest:have the final say in it.
Guest:But I could see why stars, you hear about stars fighting with studios or stars fighting with directors.
Guest:Your fucking ass is on the line.
Guest:And your pedigree and your ability to continue to star in movies is on the line.
Guest:And the business of show business, I could see how Brando was the most famous for sort of despising it outwardly and openly first.
Guest:How it could drive you fucking nuts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, because you become a commodity and then you can't even control what you're doing.
Guest:So but but for me, like, you know, I go into, you know, especially when I was young, everything was like just earnest.
Guest:You know, like I was like Kiss Toledo Goodbye, that piece of shit, amongst other things.
Guest:And we went into it thinking it's going to be this great mobster comedy.
Guest:And it didn't turn out that way.
Guest:But at the time, you don't know.
Marc:But you were in Higher Learning.
Marc:That was a big movie.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And Basketball Diaries.
Marc:That was a good movie.
Guest:Basketball Diaries.
Marc:Working with Leonardo, right?
Guest:DiCaprio.
Guest:He went on to bigger and better things.
Guest:He did all right.
Guest:He did all right for himself.
Guest:The funny thing about Higher Learning is that he was actually going to be in Higher Learning.
Guest:The original cast for Higher Learning was Leonardo DiCaprio, Tupac.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Gwyneth Paltrow.
Guest:And I was going to play a different part.
Guest:And then for some fucking strange reason, DiCaprio decided to do some movie about a sinking ship.
Guest:I don't know what the fuck he was thinking.
Guest:I don't know what came of that thing.
Guest:What a mistake that was.
Guest:Some fucking piece of shit he wanted to do about a ship and James Cameron.
Guest:Some guys just make the wrong choices.
Guest:I don't know what the fuck he was thinking about, Mark.
Guest:But anyway, so, you know, but yeah, I mean, basketball dies.
Marc:And then you work with Woody?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Woody Allen, that was a big deal.
Marc:Of course it was a big deal.
Marc:There's a big movie, Oscar winner with what's his name?
Guest:Mira Serrino, Mighty Aphrodite.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And that was big for me.
Marc:It was exciting.
Marc:Most of the people I talk to that work with him, he's pretty low key, right?
Marc:He kind of counts on you to do what you do.
Guest:He counts on you to do.
Guest:He doesn't count on you to do what you do.
Guest:You know what he wants?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:The first thing he wants is he doesn't want to talk about him being Woody Allen.
Guest:That's number one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, say, he doesn't want any sort of fanboy shit about, like, what was it like when you did Manhattan?
Guest:He doesn't want to talk about himself.
Guest:But, you know, I got him to talk very open and sort of regularly about basketball.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:fast food in New York, Chinese restaurants, and jazz music.
Guest:Because I knew going into it, don't talk to him about any... Don't ask him... His movies.
Guest:He doesn't want to talk about that.
Guest:But if you talk to him just regular and you're not extra giddy with him, he'll talk to you.
Guest:But as far as his process, he writes a script.
Guest:It's actor-proof.
Guest:The way he shoots things is very contained.
Guest:He doesn't do a lot of coverage.
Guest:Um, everything looks beautiful.
Guest:He doesn't rehearse anything.
Guest:So like we would have like, you know, five, six, seven page scenes and he would be like, let's just shoot it and see what happens.
Guest:And like, I mean, I'm talking about like, you don't run the lines.
Guest:Like he would kind of like do this part over here, do this part over here, walk there, walk back, and then we'll see what happens.
Guest:And, and a lot of times it just works.
Guest:but there's definitely a method to the madness and a method to the magic but he just sort of scales down all the bullshit and at the time I was like he's got complete control and that makes a big difference great people in the film the writing anyone can do a good performance in a Woody Allen film the writing itself is so good
Marc:Yeah, no, there's been quite a few good ones.
Marc:And then like Copland, that should have been a huge movie.
Marc:I kind of like it.
Marc:It's a weird-ass movie.
Marc:It's a good movie.
Marc:Did you get to talk to Sly and everybody?
Guest:All of them.
Guest:All of them.
Guest:And I was like a fucking kid in a candy store.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Like I was- Liotta.
Guest:Ray Liotta, De Niro, Sylvester Stallone.
Guest:And like Sylvester Stallone-
Guest:Rocky was the first movie I ever saw that moved me.
Guest:I was six when I saw it, but somehow it got me on an emotional level.
Guest:And then De Niro and then Harvey Keitel.
Guest:But to be on a set- New York guys.
Guest:I couldn't fucking believe that.
Marc:I couldn't believe- Is Swy from New York or Philly?
Marc:Philly, yeah.
Guest:But he was like a fixture in my life, and De Niro was a fixture in my life.
Guest:And the first day on the set of Copland, I'm on the set with Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, Harvey Keitel, and fucking Robert De Niro in a movie.
Guest:We're shooting downtown by one police plaza, and I'm just like floating.
Guest:floating through air, like I can't believe that I've done this.
Guest:And I knew to keep my fan shit, this is before cell phones and all this stuff, but I remember writing in my journal, and the thing, I can't believe I'm going on set, I'm about to do this scene with De Niro and Stallone.
Guest:It was just a great experience that James Mangold directed it.
Guest:And, you know, the film turned out good.
Guest:And it was there was so much excitement and hype on it because it was going to be Sylvester Stallone's return.
Guest:And I'm going to gain weight and all this stuff.
Guest:And, you know, I mean, it was just it was it was fun.
Guest:Peter Berg was in it.
Marc:I know Berg.
Marc:I lived with him briefly.
Marc:Did you really?
Marc:In Culver City when he was starting out, I was starting out.
Guest:Steve Brill.
Marc:Me, Steve Brill.
Guest:Oh, shit.
Marc:And Berg briefly lived with each other.
Guest:That's crazy.
Marc:And they pushed me out.
Guest:They got rid of you.
Guest:That's a crazy bunch right there.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And we were kids.
Marc:So did you talk to De Niro?
Marc:Were you able to sort of get a little...
Guest:We had little exchanges.
Guest:I knew better than to fucking... Again, I don't have Tourette's, but I felt like I had a Raging Bull Tourette's.
Guest:I was just going to be like, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle, Casino.
Guest:But I kept it under control.
Guest:We had funny exchanges.
Guest:He was very polite.
Guest:I treated him like a professional.
Guest:He treated me like a professional.
Guest:When I was in front of him, I knew the best thing to do was to just bring it to him.
Guest:Just be a pro and be as good as I could possibly be.
Guest:Stallone
Guest:was a different story.
Guest:Like I was with Stallone, like Rocky one through six.
Guest:Every single line from every single movie, we would do, I would do Paulie lines.
Guest:He would do Rocky lines.
Guest:I would do Rocky lines.
Guest:He would do Adrian lines.
Guest:I would do his lines.
Guest:He would do other people's lines.
Guest:Like he loved it.
Guest:He answered every single one of my Rocky fantasy questions, Burgess Meredith questions.
Guest:My Carl Weathers questions, my Stallone, every single fucking question.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:To the point where James Mangold was like, do not talk to him.
Guest:Don't fucking speak to him.
Guest:This is Copland.
Guest:This isn't Rocky III.
Guest:He's not talking about Clubber Lane.
Guest:Don't talk to him on the set unless it's within the character.
Guest:So it was, but it was, he was cool and very generous and totally like, you know, appreciated it and never like annoyed and like, he was cool.
Marc:Did you become friends?
Guest:you know until the last day and i haven't seen him since i saw him at a a basketball game two years later and he looked at me like i was an usher but he listen he's you know and i get that now did you see the new one loved it i gotta see it for for sylvester sloan to get nominated for best supporting actor for essentially rocky seven it's almost like you know like it's a rocky story within rocky seven yeah
Guest:But he deserves it, and he was great in Creed.
Guest:I loved Creed, and I was as cynical as anybody going into it.
Guest:I had fucking tears coming down my face.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:Creed's great, and Michael B. Jordan is great.
Guest:And the thing about Creed that it does is that it creates a new movie for all of us.
Guest:It refers to the old stuff, and you get the old Rocky magic.
Marc:And also for your kids.
Marc:exactly yeah exactly all right then let's get a bamboozled that you were great in that that's a great movie spike lee i love that movie you know why movie you know why i love that movie because i mean he shot it on digital i think one of the first movies on digital yeah and i know there's but but the way they they produced the minstrel show yes as television yeah and they showed it with those colors in it it was disturbing yes and beautiful like you know that's what it would look like and how different is that
Marc:Like it was powerful to me.
Marc:Just specifically the way they shot those minstrel shows.
Marc:It was fucking devastating.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, it was very, very.
Marc:Was that hard for you to do to go against character a little bit?
Marc:Because you were kind of the asshole, the insensitive.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, I loved it.
Guest:You know, like as an actor, like you'd love that shit.
Marc:And Spike was good to work with?
Guest:Spike is very similar to Woody.
Guest:Like, he's very much like, he loves the actor to do his thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Very sort of, you know, empowering and lets you do your thing.
Guest:And because it was one of the first films on digital, I mean, I'm talking about digital, like it was small little cameras around the room.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:We had cameras like we would do fucking 10 page scenes.
Guest:There were long scenes and we'd be done like that because there was, I was like, did you get the coverage?
Guest:He was like, yeah, there's a camera there.
Guest:And I was like, oh shit.
Guest:It was like surveillance cameras almost.
Guest:And if you watch the film again, and it definitely deserves a second watching or first watching, you'll see that like the way it was shot was very unique and exciting cast and Spike Lee movie in New York.
Guest:And, you know, I'm proud of that movie.
Marc:I didn't realize until now because this is how I do it.
Guest:It's fine.
Marc:You did two with Woody.
Marc:Two.
Marc:Yeah, that doesn't happen all the time.
Guest:No, I know.
Guest:I got invited back.
Guest:Now I'm concerned that I didn't get invited back for the third time.
Guest:I'm like, did I fuck up?
Guest:Did I step on his toes?
Guest:But no, I'm sure I'll get a chance.
Marc:But there's so fucking many movies.
Marc:What other ones we talked about here really made a mark on you and who you work with and what happened?
Guest:I mean, Beautiful Girls is a movie people talk to me about.
Guest:That's a good movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then, you know, and I directed a couple of docs recently.
Guest:I directed a doc called Beach Times in Life about the group A Tribe Called Quest.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Marc:That's pretty recent.
Guest:Yeah and that was a big thing for me to do and to pull off and you know you got the Gimme Shelter poster.
Guest:That's a film that I reference a lot making that film because Gimme Shelter to me is perfection.
Marc:Oh yeah it's the greatest.
Guest:Yeah and I love that poster but you know that was a big deal because I had always wanted to direct something.
Guest:And, you know, I just kind of fell into doing the Tribe movie.
Guest:And, you know, the success from that was cool.
Guest:And, you know, just everything it took and the challenge of it and the frustration of it and the work of it.
Guest:But, you know, it won awards.
Guest:It's fucking certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which, you know, you're like, yo, we're certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Marc:That means something.
Guest:And, you know, so it's been a bunch of shit.
Guest:And, you know, and I've been fortunate...
Guest:You know, to do what I do, you know, and, you know, and do good TV shit and do, you know, direct shit.
Guest:And now the, you know, I started doing, you know, I got to tell you, you're one of my inspirations for doing my podcast.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The I Am Rap Report podcast.
Marc:How often do you do it?
Marc:Twice a week.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:You got the model.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, and like just even like, you know, because I was going to call it the motherfucking Iron Rap Report podcast.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But, you know, I didn't think that would be sellable.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:Not that even the Iron Rap.
Marc:Even WTF is a little bit of an obstacle.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:But, you know, like I just, you know, like being with you and doing this show with you means a lot to me because, you know, as far as I'm concerned, I mean, you know this, you know, podcasts are becoming so part of the culture now.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But you've been doing this shit for so long.
Guest:What I wanted to ask you is, what made you start doing it when nobody was doing it?
Guest:Desperation.
Marc:Like, what do you mean?
Marc:My stand-up career was not happening.
Marc:My acting career wasn't happening.
Marc:The radio thing was over, and I didn't know what the fuck I was going to do.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And that's really what happened.
Marc:All we committed to was two episodes a week, no matter what, new episodes.
Marc:We drop them like clockwork and see what happens.
Marc:At the beginning, it wasn't even an interview show.
Marc:It was sort of a mishmash of things.
Marc:The idea of WTF was really about a theme that we were going to have segments and stuff.
Marc:And then it just sort of, once I moved out here, I set up in here.
Marc:We were doing a third act occasionally.
Marc:That was a comedy piece.
Marc:And then that just started to go away and it became what it became.
Guest:That's crazy, man.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was just persistence and sticking with it.
Marc:And there was no way to make money at it for a couple of years.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And then all of a sudden it was just good cosmic timing for once in my life.
Marc:You know, I had a certain skill set that I didn't think I had.
Guest:Right.
Marc:You know, I would never have thought that I'd be thought of as this interviewer or good interviewer.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I still don't like the word interview.
Marc:I like to have conversations.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And it just sort of grew.
Marc:I happened to be there at the first wave of popularity of this thing.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And define my little nook of it.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And I'm happy that other people do it.
Marc:I'm happy I helped define the medium for some people or gave some people hope that they can succeed at it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, it's like anything else.
Marc:There's a lot of them out there now.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:See what happens.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I mean, it's a good time.
Guest:And honestly, you know, like with all the...
Guest:the bullshitting and shit talking and all that stuff that we're doing like I really respect you know like what you've done and I'm sure other people feel like you've inspired them because you definitely inspire me because you do make it a conversation and you do do it in layman's terms which is something that I could definitely respond to because when it gets too highfalutin yeah I'm like but it's also a personality driven thing and you've got that in spades for fuck's sake you know so what's the angle of yours
Guest:You know, I just talk shit.
Guest:You know, we talk about, you know.
Guest:You have guests.
Marc:You have a sidekick.
Guest:I have guests.
Guest:My sidekick is actually my best friend.
Guest:I call him the Black Ed McMahon, but his name is Gerald Moody.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, he's been my best friend.
Guest:We've been friends since like 1982.
Guest:And at first it was just me.
Guest:And then I was like, yo, I'm doing this podcast.
Guest:Like, come when I'm recording one day.
Guest:This was early when we were doing it.
Guest:We've only been doing it a year.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:um and and i was like yo i'm gonna ask you some things and you just do what you do and he was totally comfortable and then i was like yo you got to do it with me but we we talk shit we have fun you know we do the sick fuck of the week yeah which is a an award that is is earned not given so you can't just be a sick fuck you got to be a special kind of sick fuck yeah um one of the segments that people like a lot is famous white people with no lips
Guest:And then Charlie Sheen actually inspired me to give.
Guest:He was a double winner because he was the first person to win the sick fuck of the week and a famous white person with no lips.
Guest:So I like to have fun, talk about music, sports, and just enjoy.
Guest:I like interviewing, but only if it's somebody that I really...
Guest:you know, I'm curious and excited about.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:So you mix it up.
Guest:I mix it up.
Marc:You got some comedy segments and some themes.
Guest:Exactly, exactly.
Marc:And how's it going?
Guest:It's going good, man.
Guest:People coming around?
Guest:People are coming around and it's fun.
Guest:And, you know, for me, it's fun and at times it's challenging because, you know, sometimes you're like, oh, shit, I got to record.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But not like challenging, like I got to go build a house with like- No, but you still got to show up for it and you don't want to autopilot something that you're in charge of.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Because that's the thing that I like about it.
Guest:It's like, you can't, I can't, although I'll find a way to complain about anything because that's what I do.
Guest:I'll complain about the podcast that I'm doing that I have total control over because that's just what Jews do.
Guest:We just tend to do that, especially abrasive big mouth Jews.
Guest:I got my own version of that.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:But I just love doing it.
Guest:And people have loved doing it.
Guest:And we're carving out a little niche.
Guest:And I try to keep it honest.
Guest:We don't fact check anything.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That's one of the things I pride myself on.
Marc:That'll get listeners excited.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It's the only non-fact checking podcast.
Marc:You get a lot of emails that way.
Guest:A lot of emails that way.
Guest:And there's really no accountability because it's a non-fact checking podcast.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:And then people are just like, you fucking idiot.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then you get to read that on the air.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And I didn't know that to begin with, but I was like, you know, I didn't want to do it in front of a computer because when I first, when you first do a podcast, like you were probably like, you're just like, you're talking into a mic alone.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Which is like a crazy person.
Marc:Hard to master that.
Marc:Well, it's an amazing skill is what it is.
Marc:is i mean if you think about radio broadcasters right who do that for hours i mean it's like it's a fucking skill and once you learn how to do that that mo i remember the moment where i'm like i can i can own a mic on my own right for a couple hours if i have to right if you have to right on radio right and and that day was sort of like all right it's like a amazing skill set it's liberating
Guest:It is.
Guest:It's liberating.
Guest:So that's one of the things when I say fun and challenging.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like finding that within me and trying to just make your point of view honest and genuine without being TMI.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Without telling too much.
Marc:I don't mind too much.
Marc:I mean, but you could be like too much.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Like too much.
Marc:Well, you don't want to be sad.
Guest:You don't want to be sad, pathetic, or, you know, like, you know, like, you just don't want, like, you have to find, like, you know, what the parameters are of, like, I'm being 100% honest, but not 150% honest.
Marc:I don't want to drag you into my shit, so I'm going to stop there.
Guest:Right, but I want to drag you in, but not totally drag you in it with me.
Guest:Like, I want you to feel my pain, but don't, you know, I don't want you to live it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So, you know, so, like, just kind of, so I love doing it.
Guest:And, you know, in between things, you know,
Guest:It's a fun thing.
Guest:I enjoy doing it, and it's exciting.
Guest:Well, good, man.
Marc:Well, congratulations on that.
Guest:Are you doing any movies right now?
Guest:I just finished a movie with Liev Schreiber.
Guest:I feel like the title might change, but it's called The Bleeder.
Guest:It's about Chuck Webner.
Guest:who's actually the person that really inspired Rocky.
Guest:He's a boxer that was sort of a ham and egg boxer.
Guest:He fought Muhammad Ali.
Guest:He knocked Muhammad Ali down.
Guest:He almost went the full distance.
Guest:Essentially, that was what...
Guest:His career was defined by until the actual movie Rocky came out.
Guest:And when the actual movie Rocky came out and Stallone was talking about being inspired by Chuck Webner, it essentially drove the real Rocky, the real Chuck Webner, crazy because he was like, that's my fucking life.
Guest:And it's a great script.
Guest:Liev is fucking awesome and a great story.
Guest:Is he still alive, Webner?
Guest:He's still alive.
Marc:So he must be feeling good about it.
Guest:Yeah, man.
Guest:And he's literally like the real Rocky, like his, you know, like his whole life.
Guest:And it, you know, like the way that movie affected him, the success of Rocky and him being like, wait a minute, that's fucking me.
Guest:And then no one's sort of, they're like, you know, the Academy Awards, he's like, well, I won.
Guest:And they're like, you didn't win shit.
Guest:Rocky won.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And it affected this guy.
Marc:Did Sly ever reach out to him?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Sly reached out and there was stuff.
Guest:I don't want to say too much or say too little.
Guest:It's in the movie?
Guest:Well, it's in the movie.
Guest:Not that I'm giving away things, but there was legality things.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it's all stuff that's public.
Guest:It's out there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They came to a settlement because when you look at it, he talked about it.
Guest:When Stallone did Rocky, he didn't know it was going to be Rocky.
Guest:It was a million dollar movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was like a fucking independent movie starring a guy named Sylvester Stallone.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:who was not Sylvester Stallone at the time.
Guest:But that was one of the things.
Guest:I'm going to star in my movie.
Guest:We're going to get James Conner, fucking Paul Newman.
Guest:And he's like, no, that's the way we're going to make the movie.
Guest:So that's a great story.
Guest:But that movie, seeing that and hearing this guy talk about, well, I was inspired by Chuck Webner fighting Muhammad Ali, it drove the real guy crazy in a way.
Guest:So this movie's about that part of his life.
Guest:And it's a good... That sounds interesting.
Guest:Yeah, it's good.
Guest:Who directed it?
Guest:This guy named Philippe Fardou, he's a Montreal Canadian.
Guest:He's a French Canadian.
Guest:He's a Montreal Canadian.
Guest:I'm not pronouncing his last name good, but he did a few movies, and he's good, and it's a good pedigree of people.
Marc:Oh, great.
Marc:So you're working, man.
Guest:You're always working.
Guest:I can't complain, man.
Guest:I'm knock on wood.
Guest:You know what I'm saying?
Marc:Yeah, thanks for talking to me, buddy.
Guest:Yo, I appreciate it, Mark.
Guest:And, you know, like it's a privilege.
Guest:And I'm going to take this chair and put this fucking thing on eBay.
Guest:Is that cool?
Marc:No, no.
Guest:No, okay.
Guest:All right, fuck it.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Maybe I'll give you, I'll find something you can have.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, if there's a guy, they should frisk me because I've been pocketing shit the whole time.
Guest:Like I'm thinking like maybe Obama touched this, maybe Obama touched that for the first ever.
Guest:I can give you anything.
Guest:Be like, yeah, this is.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah, touch this piece of paper.
Guest:This bag here, this Target bag.
Guest:He wore that on his head.
Marc:He spit into that.
Marc:All right, buddy.
Marc:Thank you.
Thank you.
Marc:All right, that's it.
Marc:That was invigorating.
Marc:Talking to Michael Rappaport is invigorating.
Marc:I like him.
Marc:That was fun.
Marc:Go to WTFpod.com.
Marc:A lot of posters going out lately.
Marc:I like the posters.
Marc:Maybe you will too.
Marc:Get hooked up with some JustCoffee.coop.
Marc:Get the WTF blend.
Marc:Get on the mailing list.
Marc:Go there.
Marc:Go.
Marc:Go.
Marc:Guitar?
Marc:Why not?
Thank you.
Marc:Boomer lives!